Steven Wilson brings multimedia experience to Keswick

Steven Wilson, British progressive rock virtuoso, will be bringing his band to the Keswick on April 17 in support of his newest album, 2013’s “The Raven That Refused to Sing.” Recorded in one week with a band he just recently formed, Wilson said his latest record (aptly named, with its eerie, Poe-esque tone) is one of the most organic of his creations.

Acclaimed as a musical engineer and director, Wilson typically spends months fine-tuning his work. To jump into the studio with a band and hit the record button is somewhat out of character for the veteran producer.

“I think the main thing for me is this is the first record I’ve made with the band I plan on playing my solo projects with,” said Wilson, who made his name as the founder of psychedelic, progressive-rock band Porcupine Tree.

“My first two (solo) albums were made rather abstractly, without specific musicians in mind. Those (albums) were put together over a fairly long period of time. This time the music was specifically written with these musicians in mind.

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“It has a more organic, more natural tone to it. There’s a band chemistry or electricity, or however you want to put it. There’s a cohesion to it, and perhaps it has more of a sense of direction as well.”

A self-proclaimed perfectionist, Wilson taught himself to play music not because of a passion for the guitar or any other instrument he might pick up, but because it was the easiest path to move the music from his head to the record.

“I didn’t really have any plans to be a guitar player at all,” he said. “I kind of fell in love with the idea of making records and creating this musical journey, this concept album or whatever you want to call it.

“When I was younger I would listen to my father’s and mother’s collection. Stuff like (Pink Floyd’s) Dark Side of the Moon or Donna Summers. They felt like a musical journey to me. I guess my ambition was to be a producer, although I didn’t know what a producer was at the time.”

But Wilson’s visions were initially stifled by a population of musicians who weren’t interested in his idea of an album.

“The ’80s was a very conservative time period for music,” he continued. “At the time, most people wanted to be U2. So when I first started composing, nobody else I knew wanted to make the music I wanted to make.

“I wanted to make these 20-minute long pieces, create these sonic landscapes. They were more conceptual, something that looked back to the previous decade perhaps.

“But I had to teach myself and work with whatever I had lying around to actually make the music because nobody wanted to do it. It was a barren time for so-called ambitious rock music.”

On his newest album, Wilson hand-picked the musicians, deliberately selecting those who were either rock or jazz-oriented, and putting them together in the studio and on the stage.

“I was very much looking for a balance of a rock sensibility and jazz sensibility. We aren’t playing jazz music, but I want a lot of freedom in the music, a lot of improvisation and solos. I was really trying to get that more spiritual aspect of jazz into my songs. Rock is much more clinical, arranged. Jazz is in the moment, a spiritual improvisation.”

The band couldn’t have worked out better. Wilson said chemistry isn’t something you can plan, but everything seemed to jell once they all got together.

“There are times onstage where I just sit and watch them play,” he said. “I enjoy how they kind of interpret everything. It’s an incredible experience.”

It will no doubt be an incredible experience for the Keswick audience as well, both for long-time Wilson fans and neophytes alike. It certainly won’t be your typical, run-of-the-mill rock concert.

“The show is always a kind of multimedia experience. We have screens with films projecting on them, quadrophonic sound. There is no opening act. It’s a complete experience. There is something musical and visual happening even as people are coming into the show. It’s like entering into my music world for three or four hours — fairly immersive.”